Free Web NovelChapter 1198: Chapter 1126: The First Half of 1457
December 1456 rushed by, and soon 1457 arrived.
It’s as if time pressed the fast-forward button, as if in the blink of an eye, half a year passed quickly.
In half a year, many changes seem to have happened, yet it also feels as though nothing happened.
Spring departed, summer arrived, and the idle farmers started working in nearby towns.
A new batch of loyal followers, along with new university graduates, were dispatched to the countryside to assist the itinerant monks.
Everyone was busy and hurried, utterly oblivious to the arrival of 1457.
Only those reading newspapers in cafes, the university students, and engineers were sensitive to the passage of time.
They would always engage in high-discourse on international affairs, talking about the current political situation of Dawn Island and discuss how Charles VIII wrote over a dozen letters to Horn out of anger due to Dawn Island.
Despite the insults tossed about in the newspapers, it did not delay the Holy Alliance from buying Falan oil and raw materials, nor did it stop the Falan from purchasing Holy Alliance bonds, stocks, and various novel industrial products.
Prime Minister Lorenzo even personally called out in the newspapers urging the Falan people to remain loyal to their homeland and not buy foreign goods.
But soon, the Holy Alliance Truth Journal angrily accused Lorenzo of dumping agricultural products and industrial raw materials while exploiting the industrial goods of the Holy Alliance.
With the Holy Alliance gradually selling patent rights and freeing the church’s monopoly on public opinion, newspapers began appearing all over the empire.
The citizens who had just gained speaking rights evidently expressed their presence like mad dogs.
The arena of public opinion was filled with verbal battles, which delighted the citizens who loved frequenting taverns and cafes.
They even ignored the fact that the Black Snake Bay Federation received a batch of political refugees from the royal court.
A group of key members of the Sorrido Clan went to the Black Snake Bay Federation.
This was one of Horn’s main motives for establishing the Black Snake Bay Federation — to act as a black glove for the Holy Alliance.
Whatever tasks the Holy Alliance was unsuitable to handle, the Black Snake Bay Federation would undertake.
The arrival of the Sorrido Clan definitely could not be hidden from Hilov.
Horn blocked the information, preparing to let Hilov know gradually.
With Hilov’s intelligence, she vaguely felt something amiss.
However, she didn’t speak directly about it, instead focusing on scientific research.
Having abandoned basic theoretical research and fully turned to mechanical application, Hilov was undeniably exceptional.
She was not only a world-class mechanical engineer, a top-tier research project manager but also a premier alchemist and possessor of microscopic spells.
A problem that would take a Dwarf half a day to see, Hilov could instantly discover the issue by simply saying "Microscopic spell, activate!"
Of course, under the Holy Council, they also established a mechanical divination department for divination warlocks including those from Dreamless Hermitage and White Mountain Hermitage.
If any design problems proved unsolvable, these divination warlocks would provide inspiration.
Though not always spot-on, it facilitated technical advancements at an extraordinary pace.
Early in the year, Horn assigned Hilov the first task which was to think of a way to develop a spring locomotive.
With the construction of over a dozen ether clocks, operating spring locomotives within the realm of the Ry Court Barracks was not an issue.
The current major problem still lies within the long-distance spring locomotives.
Horn’s ideal spring locomotive project includes one line heading north to Norn and another traversing the Dragon Sleep Mountain Range toward southern Norn.
Once these two railways connect, southern Norn’s goods no longer need to go around a large loop from Griffin Point to Falan.
They could take a shortcut directly through the Dragon Sleep Mountain Range via Thousand River Valley to Leia and Falan regions.
Of course, the goods transportable by railway are limited and must meet the minimum standard for net unit price.
Otherwise, if the volume is too large, spring locomotives would be unprofitable, thus sea routes would remain necessary.
Yet a spring locomotive has the problem that the original version’s spring storage space is too small for even the shortest journey.
After the completion of the ether clock research, Loton, Kerben, and others began diving into new spring machine study.
First, Kerben developed refined mountain copper through enhancing the electric voltage of the lightning furnace, greatly increasing storage capacity.
Then, former White Mountain Hermitage alchemist pharmacist Robert, along with a bunch of graduate students, developed a spring solution based on moon mercury, commonly known as "lubricating oil."
The purpose of this lubricating oil wasn’t for lubrication but to enable mountain copper springs to fall into inertia.
This effectively solved the issue of explosive spring storage.
Following that, Loton designed a spring generator that slowly controlled the spring by stepwise injecting and extracting the lubricating liquid.
Finally, in a supermodel state, Hilov combined all these research results into one, forming the "Hand of the Holy Father I" spring machine, in just three months.
Through layers of research breakthroughs, the "Hand of the Holy Father I" spring machine reached a height equivalent to at least three or four stories.
Theoretically, it’s hundreds of times more powerful than the previous "Rotary Holy Machine."
The most important thing is that despite its performance, the weight and size of the Hand of the Holy Father spring machine aren’t too large.
The locomotive engine can fully accommodate it, but there’s just one problem.
The hardness of refined mountain copper is so high that apart from using ether directly, no other suitable charging method seems available.
Either the material isn’t viable or conventional charging doesn’t work.
At this time, Kerben’s previously developed patent on transferring potential energy from low-density to high-density springs finally came in handy.
Although it hasn’t reached the application layer yet, it’s at least a promising direction for research.
The staff of the Holy Alliance newspaper learned of this news and directly reported it as auspicious on the newspaper.
Things like "The Holy Father made Ry Court Barracks theological technology skyrocket within half a year, as a tribute to the third four-year plan" or "This is the blessing of the Holy Father, fate is leaping"...
After reading this content in the newspaper, Horn quickly called Madlan over and angrily scolded him.
The tone of the newspapers changed thereafter, from extolling the Saint’s Grandson Holy Father to instead praising the divine skill masters and engineers.
Horn knew well that the apparent explosion of Ry Court Barracks within half a year was actually a decade’s worth of accumulation realized at this moment.
It couldn’t even be described as just a decade of accumulation but rather the fruition of a century-old accumulation by secret societies and artisans.
Previously, this accumulation couldn’t be realized because there lacked methodology, guiding philosophy, and suitable environment.
Now that the empire and the church were toppled, the Holy Alliance provided the most conducive environment.
With years of watering and fertilizing, spending countless funds from the Holy Treasury, this seed finally bore abundant fruit.
Yet Horn also knew that knowing and doing are two different things.
Whether it can achieve near-hundredfold effectiveness in reality depends on the results from the assembled prototype.
With a silk vest for summer switched to, Horn set aside the latest report on the Hand of the Holy Father and stretched lazily.
"Petier..."
"I’m here."
"Make a note of this, the Hand of the Holy Father and spring locomotives should be displayed at the expo."
Horn didn’t intend for the first exposition of the Holy Alliance to be overly grand.
After all, the expo is essentially a product introduction, with a need to be mindful of costs.
"Didn’t you say it’s too advanced to display?"
"Times have changed," Horn smiled, picking up the next letter, "In the future we’ll need to issue railway stocks; if the Falan don’t understand the stakes, how will they buy stocks?"
Horn lowered his head to see the signature on the letter, and the smile on his face vanished.
It was a letter from Charles VIII.
The content was much like previous ones, expressing emotions like today my hands shake, today my heart aches, why have you betrayed me?
Weren’t we supposed to divide Dawn Island together? How did you end up taking it all?
At first, Horn would patiently explain that this was the choice of the Dawn Islanders.
After being bothered by Charles repeatedly, Horn’s replies became like this: "The shepherd you inquire of is Joan, what does this have to do with my Jeanne?"
Placing the reply into an envelope and tossing it into the pending document tray, Horn sighed inexplicably.
"What’s wrong, sir?" Petier, always closely monitoring Horn’s dynamics, promptly looked up.
"It’s nothing," Horn shook his head, though his mind was no longer on the report.
Regarding Jeanne, ever since returning from Dawn Island, she’s been utterly beside herself.
Not only has she become less communicative, but she would often stare intently at him, making him feel uneasy.
Is this a prelude to a witch’s outburst? I didn’t secretly indulge while she was away!
Horn harbored eighty percent confidence on this matter.
I’ll need to find an opportunity to talk with Jeanne, Horn thought, rubbing his temples in distress.
With the threat posed by Lilith showing up, his marriage and heir issues have also become significant troubles.
Horn had means to manage the other three Saintesses but as for his sister, he truly didn’t know how to resolve things.
